Tag: pinnacle pctv pro linux

Recently, my old TV Tuner card died. So I brought a new Pinnacle PCTV Card 50i/110i as it is supported by Linux kernel. All you have to do is insert card into PCI slot and boot into Linux. Following instructions are tested on Ubuntu Linux (kernel version 2.6.22-14-generic), but should work on any other Linux distribution.

Step # 1: Update your PCI ID list

Use update-pciids command to fetch the current version of the pci.ids file from the primary distribution site and installs it$ sudo update-pciids Output:

Step #3: saa7134 driver

This card requires saa7134 driver (a video4linux module) in the Linux kernel. This driver is by default included in most distro including Ubuntu. Just run old good dmesg command to see if a driver loaded or not.$ dmesg | grep saa7133 Output:

As you see everything was automatically detected and loaded by Linux kernel.

Step #4: Watch TV with tvview

tvtime is a high quality Linux television application for use with video capture cards. tvtime processes the input from a capture card and displays it on a computer monitor or projector. It is simple and easy to use. To install tvtime, enter:$ sudo apt-get install tvtime

Step #5: Configure tvview application

Start tvtime by visiting Application > Sound and Video > Tvtime Television Viewer. Alternatively, you can type the following command at a shell prompt:$ tvtime & Right click to open a setup menu. You can also hit [F1] or [tab] key to show configuration menu: (Fig. 01: Linux tvtime application configuration menu) First, you need to setup video source, frequencies and channels etc.

Scan Channel

Step #6: Sound configuration

You need to attach internal cables to get sound out of TV tuner card. Use driver saa7134-oss or saa7134-alsa to get sound out of card. This driver get loaded automatically. Open terminal and type the following command to hear the audio through ALSA using tvtime (or other programs that don’t support it directly):$ sox -c 2 -s -w -r 32000 -t ossdsp /dev/dsp1 -t ossdsp -w -r 32000 /dev/dsp Note: You may have to adjust /dev/dsp1. To watch tv, enter:$ tvtime (Fig. 02: Tvtime a high quality Linux television application in action)

tvtime Keyboard keys

Here are the core set of key bindings you want to learn for using tvtime: